Scientist expresses skepticism over Clark’s LNG figures

However, David Hughes, a geoscientist with the federal government for more than 30 years, who now works as a private consultant, says the numbers don’t add up.

He argues to meet the export targets in B.C., the gas industry would need to drill 50 thousand new wells in the next 27 years, which is double the number drilled since the nineteen fifties.

Mr. Hughes runs the consulting firm Global Sustainability Research Incorporated, and has posted his findings on line on the site Watershed Sentinel—a BC environmental news magazine.

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He claims, “The LNG export plans of the B.C. government are unlikely to be realized at the scale envisioned, and must be seriously questioned”.

The newspaper also says he believes that if LNG is exported to the degree projected, B.C. and the rest of the country could have an energy deficit.

He claims his analysis is based on statistics from the National Energy Board, which has approved seven LNG export applications in B.C. and is considering two others.

However, he doubts the province will get all the new LNG plants the government is talking about and he suggests, as unlikely, the predictions that LNG has a BC potential bonanza on the scale of the Alberta oil sands.

The Globe story also says both the government and industry have rejected his conclusions.

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